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01/03/2013

Protestant Communitarianism and Catholic Individualism

The common understanding is that Catholics emphasize
community and Protestants emphasize the individual. From the Catholic
perspective human beings are social animals rooted in a community that begins
with the family. Catholic support for the poor is rooted in the recognition
that we are all made in the image of God, are all part of the human family, and
that the option for the poor is a part of what it means to be a Christian. On
the other hand, the common understanding is that Protestants emphasize the
individual. One common path from that is a strong endorsement of the
capitalistic system (where traditional Catholic doctrine emphasizes the perils
of unregulated capitalism) though quite different conclusions follow from
Protestant individualism for evangelicals and mainline Protestants (though
there are differences within those groupings. The former tend to limit support
of the poor, for example, to the “worthy” poor; the latter tend to be closer to
the traditional Catholic view in this respect though not in many others
including women, sexual teachings, and the like.

The communitarian/individualistic emphasis seems to be
turned upside down on Sundays. The communitarian Catholics turn into individualists
at Sunday Mass. It is possible for a visitor to walk into a Sunday Mass (of
course, there are exceptions) and be spoken to by no one except a person
assigned to hand out a program (of course, contact is made with others when the
exchange of the Peace of Christ is made during the service, but the Vatican
advises parishioners to stay close to their places). In stark contrast in the
overwhelming majority of Protestant churches, it is not possible to walk into
them as a visitor without being greeted by many. It is sometimes overwhelming.
It is hard to go into such churches and simply pray at the outset of a service.
The passing of the Peace in many of these churches is an occasion for greeting
most of those present.

I imagine a Protestant walking into many Catholic churches
feels unwelcome. A Catholic walking into a Protestant church feels barraged.
But there is more. I do not mean to criticize Catholics or Protestants here (I
aim to describe general patterns). I believe that the reason Catholics are not
as social when they gather for Mass is that there is a sense of the sacred in
church, and a sense that the right thing to do is to quietly pray. There is
surely no intention to make visitors feel unwelcome. Similarly, Protestants are
not trying to make visitors feel uncomfortable. Quite to the contrary, they are
simply making clear that visitors are welcome. I wonder, however, what impact
this difference in the ritual has on the communitarian sense of Protestant
congregations and without arguing against a sense of the sacred, I wonder
whether the sense of the sacred works against community bonding in Catholic
congregations.